Numbers 19:1-10

Laws for Purification

1 Now the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
2 "This is the statute of the law that the LORD has commanded: Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish, 1and on which a yoke has never come.
3 And you shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and 2it shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered before him.
4 And Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, and 3sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times.
5 And the heifer shall be burned in his sight. 4Its skin, its flesh, and its blood, with its dung, shall be burned.
6 And the priest shall take 5cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet yarn, and throw them into the fire burning the heifer.
7 Then the priest 6shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. But the priest shall be unclean until evening.
8 7The one who burns the heifer 8shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water and shall be unclean until evening.
9 And a man who is clean shall gather up 9the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a 10clean place. And they shall be kept for the water for 11impurity for the congregation of the people of Israel; it is a sin offering.
10 And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer 12shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. And this shall be a perpetual statute for the people of Israel, and for the stranger who sojourns among them.

Numbers 19:1-10 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 19

This chapter contains a law for making a water for purification for sin, the ingredients of which are the ashes of a red heifer burnt, about which many things are observed, Nu 19:1-10; the use of the water made of them, to purify such as were unclean by the touch of a dead body, Nu 19:11-13; some rules are given, by which it might be known who were unclean on account of a dead body, Nu 19:14-16; the manner of purifying such persons, Nu 19:17-19; and the punishment of those that should neglect purification, Nu 19:20-22.

Cross References 12

  • 1. Deuteronomy 21:3; 1 Samuel 6:7
  • 2. Leviticus 4:12; [Hebrews 13:11]
  • 3. [Leviticus 4:6, 17; Leviticus 16:14, 19]; Hebrews 9:13
  • 4. Exodus 29:14; Leviticus 4:11, 12
  • 5. See Lev. 14:4, 6, 49
  • 6. See Leviticus 11:25
  • 7. ver. 5
  • 8. [See ver. 7 above]
  • 9. Hebrews 9:13
  • 10. Leviticus 4:12; Leviticus 6:11; Leviticus 10:14
  • 11. ver. 13, 20, 21; Numbers 31:23
  • 12. [See ver. 7 above]
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.